Five Central American projects on waste utilization awarded in competition sponsored by CABEI, EU and German government through KfW

San José, December 13^th, 2022 - Thefive winning proposals of the " From Waste to Value: A Challenge for Bioproducts" innovation contest, focused on the identification and selection of technological developments with high potential to become bioproducts based on the use of waste, which was sponsored with US$25,000 by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), the European Union, and the German Government through the KfW, through its DINAMICA Initiative, were awarded this Tuesday.

"We are very pleased to participate in this type of initiative, which encourages new micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to grow and consolidate their businesses through healthy competition and training from leading experts, very much in line with the purpose of the DINAMICA Initiative that we maintain with the EU and KfW, which is to strengthen their entrepreneurial ecosystem. We congratulate the winners and wish them and all the participants every success," said CABEI Executive President, Dr. Dante Mossi.

The competition, developed by the Biomaterials Hub of the Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives (CINDE) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), was launched on October 12^th and involved 112 proposals from six countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA), which were evaluated by a jury made up of experts in innovation, bio-entrepreneurship and finance.

In this first stage of the competition, the winners received cash prizes ranging from $500 to $2,000, and will move on to a second stage starting in February 2023, in which they will receive support for the technical and commercial validation of their projects.